We recommend voters in the sprawling state Senate District 9 vote for Tracy Pennartz.

Pennartz has a broad understanding of the Arkansas Legislature and the challenges ahead of it. And although she will be moving from a relatively compact House district, she has plenty of experience with her new district, which includes parts of Sebastian, Crawford and Franklin counties and all of Scott County: She knows the area and its people well from her many years of service at Western Arkansas Counseling and Guidance Center, which includes those same areas.

As a member of the Joint Budget Committee where she chairs the Special Language subcommittee, Rep. Pennartz, when she looks ahead, looks first at budget issues. She expects a flat budget for the next year, meaning, she said, legislators will have to look for ways to address more needs without more money.

Still she hopes the per-student expenditure in the school funding formula will increase as legislators continue under a court order to fund education first.

In health care, Rep. Pennartz believes the state must look at new ways to deliver and pay for treatment, including expanding the use of telemedicine where appropriate, increasing the state’s care providers by using physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners, and further exploring payments for episodes of care rather than individual contacts.

She supports expanding Medicaid through federal funding as long as the state can opt out later if the program becomes too expensive. She thinks it’s the “right thing to do” and notes that projections indicate there may be some cost savings.

According to an Arkansas News Bureau report in the Oct. 4, edition, Gov. Mike Beebe said hospitals stand to gain from the expansion, which would make Medicaid available to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Beebe said the expansion would decrease hospital costs for uncompensated care and could net the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences $28 million a year. The federal government would pick up 100 percent of the cost of the program for the first three years, and then gradually lower its contribution until states pay 10 percent. The expansion could cover 250,000 people, and Beebe said he has been assured the state can opt out of the program if it cannot pay its share.

Pennartz anticipates the upcoming session will include some tweaking to last session’s prison reform efforts. “No bill is perfect,” she said, and this one had some unintended consequences. The Legislature will need to hear from law enforcement, the courts and the people to make sure new programs are diverting the right offenders from jail to alternate programs. The 2011 reforms aimed to reduce the number of people in detention by changing some sentences and by diverting non-violent offenders to drug court, house arrest and other alternate sentencing programs.

She believes a bipartisan commission in the year ahead will look at Arkansas’ overall tax structure. At the same time, she touts the state’s achievement as being one of just four nationally without a budget deficit and for attracting 27,000 jobs despite a difficult economy.

The tale of the upcoming legislature, as always, will be written in dollars and cents. Pennartz has demonstrated her understanding of the budget. But she also demonstrates a sense of responsibility to her constituents and a commitment to bettering western Arkansas. Folks on this side of the state often complain our voices are not heard in Little Rock. We believe putting Rep. Pennartz in the Senate will continue to turn up our volume.